The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU

by Marc Cerasini

  If I were a betting man, which I am not, I’d lay odds that Operation Nightfall was set up to fail from the start. Once we killed Drazen’s decoy, I was supposed to have died along with my men. That would have ensured the rest of the world’s belief that Drazen was dead. There were to be no witnesses.

  FULBRIGHT: Set up, you say?

  BAUER: They knew the types of radios we were using and the frequencies. How else can that be explained?

  FULBRIGHT: Set up by whom?

  BAUER: I’d like to know myself, sir. Believe me. In fact, I’d like you to find the son of a bitch and leave me alone in a room with him for five minutes.

  FULBRIGHT: Calm down, Agent Bauer. Take a moment. (Muffled voices) Let’s keep this simple. If you and your team didn’t kill Drazen in Kosovo, and you didn’t capture him and bring him to the United States, then who did?

  BAUER: I don’t honestly know, sir. What I do know is that he was being held in a Department of Defense prison. A secret prison, sir, one I stumbled upon during my investigation. If I were you, I’d ask the Department of Defense.

  FULBRIGHT: A secret prison. A secret prison?

  BAUER: Yes, sir, that’s what I said.

  FULBRIGHT: Do you mean to tell me that within the borders of this United States, there are prisoners being held without trial in facilities unknown even to an intelligence agent with a high security clearance like yourself?

  BAUER: And you, too, sir.

  FULBRIGHT: Jesus God. (Muffled voices) Please tell me, if you can, why this was not in any of the briefs previously submitted to this subcommittee by George Mason at CTU?

  BAUER: I can only speculate, sir.

  FULBRIGHT: Then do so, damn it.

  BAUER: George Mason doesn’t like to ruffle feathers. Your subcommittee is investigating CTU. I’m sure he felt it would be better to stick to that subject and avoid the can of worms I’ve just opened.

  FULBRIGHT: And you don’t care about opening the can, I take it?

  BAUER: I do not.

  FULBRIGHT: I see. Thank you, Agent Bauer. I intend to get to the bottom of this so-called secret prison system operated by an extension of the executive branch of our government. Let’s adjourn for lunch. (Muffled voices) Sam, get Martin on his cell phone. Now.

  DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TESTIMONY: * SECRET HOLDING OF VICTOR DRAZEN * COVERT PRISON SYSTEM

  CHAIRMAN FULBRIGHT:

  Lieutenant Colonel Kevin J. Newton, please rise and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give this subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?

  Lt. COL. KEVIN J. NEWTON: I do.

  FULBRIGHT: You may consider yourself under oath. Please be seated. For the record, state your name and occupation.

  NEWTON: My name is Kevin J. Newton. I am a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.

  FULBRIGHT: Where do you currently serve, and who is your commanding officer?

  NEWTON: I serve the Defense Intelligence Agency* as a judge advocate attached to the office of Donovan C. Henderson, a two-star general in the United States Army. General Henderson is the DIA’s director of the Special Unit for Counterintelligence Initiatives.*

  REP. PAULINE P. DRISCOLL, (D) CONN.: So you’re General Donovan’s lawyer, correct?

  NEWTON: I am a lawyer, Congresswoman, but I am here today only as a spokesman. The general is out of the country on a national security mission, and your subcommittee requested that someone appear to answer your questions. My department wants to cooperate fully in this investigation.

  FULBRIGHT: And we thank you for your cooperation. Begin by telling us why the military targeted Victor Drazen.

  NEWTON: Two years ago, Drazen had not yet been charged with war crimes. Though he had already been dubbed the “Butcher of Belgrade” in the international press, the United Nations was still building a case against him. However, time was running out. Drazen’s activities had become detrimental to the peace process in the Balkan states, and there was evidence of his participation in other nefarious activities that had the potential to pose asymmetric threats to the United States and our allies—

  DRISCOLL: (Interrupting) Excuse me, Lieutenant Colonel, but what exactly is an asymmetric threat?

  NEWTON: Asymmetry—or the lack of symmetry—in warfare is the use of hostile military force in unanticipated or nontraditional ways. The intent of an asymmetric threat is to reduce the conventional military superiority of the United States by exploiting a perceived weakness in our defenses.

  The DIA works to identify such threats and to develop a new mind-set for assessing potential asymmetric threats while also developing effective measures for combating them.

  DRISCOLL: Have you ever wrestled with Jell-O, Lieutenant Colonel?

  NEWTON: Ma’am?

  DRISCOLL: You’re slipping around the question—answering without answering. Please address the question again—this time in plain English.

  NEWTON: If you insist. Victor Drazen posed what’s known as an operational asymmetric threat—meaning that he attempted to undermine our capabilities, Congresswoman. It was determined by our intelligence sources that Drazen’s activities could endanger the security of the United States.

  DRISCOLL: (Loudly) Enlighten me, Lieutenant Colonel—just how could a two-bit Serbian thug endanger the security of the United States of America?

  NEWTON: I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, ma’am, that Osama bin Laden is a two-bit thug, too, and that his nontraditional use of power—his asymmetric threat activities—managed to damage our country and murder thousands of our citizens. Remember also that Victor Drazen nearly assassinated a United States presidential candidate on the day of the California primary. Frankly, the value in holding him captive seems quite clear to me. Drazen had hundreds of known criminal associates. If he gave up any one of them, we could make a significant dent in the terrorist threat against the United States. Surely, Congresswoman, you don’t have a problem understanding that?

  FULBRIGHT: Let’s take the acrimony down a notch, shall we. All right, Lieutenant Colonel, what I believe Congresswoman Driscoll would like to hear, as would I, are specifics.

  NEWTON: Yes, Mr. Chairman. Let’s start with … (papers shuffling) the fact that our sources inside Germany’s GSG9* revealed that Drazen had been negotiating certain deals with known criminal and terrorist organizations in various parts of the world.

  To be specific, the Drazens had been funneling money to highranking members of the Russian mob; they were also employing former members of the KGB in clandestine operations and bribing current members of the Russian intelligence service, including the FSB* and SVR.* Victor Drazen had even made contact with several anti government militia groups inside the United States. Our own intelligence data clearly suggested that Drazen was using his money to influence some very dangerous people—people who were and are quite clearly a threat to the security of the United States.

  FULBRIGHT: Lieutenant Colonel, you began your testimony today by stating that your department wants to cooperate fully in this investigation, but your tone suggests that you do not. May I remind you that you’re speaking to the representatives of the people of the United States right now. You might show them—and us—a little respect by checking that attitude of yours.

  NEWTON: (After a pause) Point taken, Mr. Chairman.

  REP. ROY SCHNEIDER, (R) TEX.: Ah, Lieutenant Colonel Newton, would you mind telling me exactly where the hell Victor Drazen got the money for all these so-called payoffs?

  NEWTON: We know some of the Serbian Army officers involved in ethnic cleansing* have become very rich—usually by stealing property from their victims. These are the same tactics the Nazis used to amass wealth during World War II.

  Victor Drazen was no exception. What was different about the Drazens was that they were using their money to buy influence with criminal organizations—in Russia, in Europe, and in the United States. The pattern of his spending suggested that Drazen was
in the process of creating a new international terrorist organization.

  Two years ago, Drazen transferred the bulk of his assets—approximately two hundred and twenty-five million dollars in United States currency—to an offshore bank account. Moving money was usually the first step taken by a Serbian war crimes suspect before he bolted.

  The State Department, National Security Agency, and DOD’s Defense Intelligence Agency were concerned that Drazen might escape the region before charges could be brought and NATO forces could catch up to him. From a secure location, Drazen had the potential to continue wreaking havoc on the peace process while escalating his other criminal activities.

  Because of these developments, NSA Agent Robert Ellis brought the idea of neutralizing Drazen to the attention of Senator, now President-elect, David Palmer. As I understand it, Ellis and Palmer had worked together many times before when Palmer had served as a member of the House National Security Subcommittee.

  Ellis knew that Palmer would be a strong congressional advocate for neutralizing both Slobodan Milosevic and Victor Drazen—the man Milosevic relied on to carry out many of his genocidal activities. It was then Senator Palmer, in his capacity as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who secured the funds and the Senate’s approval for the Delta operation called Nightfall.

  FULBRIGHT: But the Delta action, as it turns out, was directed at Drazen’s decoy—and resulted in the deaths of six U.S. soldiers.

  NEWTON: And in the deaths of Drazen’s wife and daughter as well.

  FULBRIGHT: Yes, that is clear from the after-action report.* Both women were in the building a Delta team had targeted—although the team’s only survivor, Special Agent Jack Bauer, claims he had no idea those civilians were present.

  NEWTON: That’s acceptable collateral damage, in my estimation.

  FULBRIGHT: In your estimation, Lieutenant Colonel, but not in Victor Drazen’s.

  NEWTON: In any event, once General Henderson’s intelligence sources discovered that the decoy was killed and not Drazen himself, General Henderson arranged to capture Drazen in a second covert mission, conducted by personnel from the DIA’s Special Unit for Counterintelligence Initiatives, under his command.

  FULBRIGHT: Then you are stating—and I remind you that you are under oath—that your commanding officer did not intentionally set up Jack Bauer and his Delta team to fail so that he could grab Drazen for his own purposes? You are testifying under oath that General Henderson did not provide Drazen’s forces with the Delta team’s radio frequencies so that they could jam their transmissions and vector in on Bauer’s men?

  NEWTON: Even such a suggestion is reckless and preposterous.

  SPECIAL AGENT JACK BAUER: (From the back of the room) Answer the questionl

  FULBRIGHT: Special Agent Bauer, this is no place for outbursts. Remain silent or I’ll have you removed from this hearing. (Muffled voices)

  SCHNEIDER: Lieutenant Colonel Newton, tell me something: if it was so important for this Drazen to be “neutralized,” and all the plans approved by the Senate and NSA were to have him “neutralized,” then why the hell did your boss suddenly decide to take him prisoner—and then not bother to inform the Senate, the NSA, or the rest of the whole damned world? I don’t recall, from my own service as an officer in the Marine Corps, that the DOD ever changed its mind about an action plan once that plan had been approved.

  NEWTON: Congressman, I do not appreciate your veiled accusation that General Henderson set out to dupe the Senate, the NSA, and the rest of the international community—

  DRISCOLL: (Interrupting) Yet that is exactly what General Henderson did! He captured Drazen, brought him to the United States, and imprisoned him without trial—and all of it was done covertly, without the knowledge or approval of his superiors in the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee. Am I not correct?

  NEWTON: There is no admission here. Nor is there an admission that we set up a Delta Force team for murder. We categorically deny any such charges.

  FULBRIGHT: Your denial is so noted. (Shuffling papers) Let’s move on to the subject of the covert prison system, which as I understand from a statement given to us by the office of the secretary of defense falls under your boss’s area of responsibility.

  NEWTON: That’s correct. You are referring to the DOD’s facilities for Mobile Underground Detention and Detainment.*

  DRISCOLL: MUDD?

  NEWTON: Yes, Congresswoman. MUDD is the military acronym for our Level 3 Detention Centers.

  SCHNEIDER: As in mud. As in the prison facilities are about as easy to see through as mud. I see the DOD has finally developed a sense of humor.

  NEWTON: (Incomprehensible response)

  DRISCOLL: Excuse me, Congressman, but may I say there’s nothing amusing about a prison system operated covertly within the borders of a nation that believes in basic human rights like trial before imprisonment. It goes against everything this country stands for.

  NEWTON: Might I point out that the prisoners detained by the Captivity Management Department are not, and never have been, citizens of the United States. Might I also point out that many of our prisoners have been convicted in absentia for crimes against humanity.

  SCHNEIDER: Lieutenant Colonel, just how many MUDD facilities does your department operate?

  NEWTON: Because that question is not relevant to the current investigation, I am not at liberty—

  SCHNEIDER: Son, you look like a smart lawyer. Well, hell, I’m a smart lawyer, too. And we’re both smart enough to know that you either answer my question today, or we’ll get answers from your commanding officer after we subpoena him.

  NEWTON: Yes, sir. (Shuffling papers) There are twenty-seven Level 3 Detention Centers scattered across the continental United States. To ensure the highest level of security, prisoners are periodi cally moved within the system. All of the facilities are former Strategic Air Command antiaircraft sites abandoned in the 1960s—

  SCHNEIDER: Nike sites? You converted old Nike sites? Well, I’ll be damned.

  NEWTON: The facilities are suitable for our purposes. All are located underground in rural areas, and the costs for conversion were minimal.

  DRISCOLL: How many prisoners are you currently holding?

  NEWTON: Eleven, ma’am. As I stated before, none of them are U.S. citizens.

  FULBRIGHT: Who are these eleven prisoners, Lieutenant Colonel?

  NEWTON: Mr. Chairman, to reveal the identities of these prisoners could jeopardize national security—

  DRISCOLL: (Interrupting) You stated that some of your prisoners had been found guilty of crimes against humanity? That’s a tall statement, Lieutenant Colonel. Surely you can back it up with a name or two.

  NEWTON: (Shuffling papers) I know the identities of only four of the prisoners, Mr. Chairman. I am not apprised of all the sensitive information in my department—

  FULBRIGHT: Answer the question, Lieutenant Colonel.

  NEWTON: To the best of my knowledge, MUDD is currently holding Liam O’Shea, Abdullah Ahmed Al-Adel, Ichiro Nakada—

  DRISCOLL: (Unintelligible) Irish Republican Army—

  FULBRIGHT: (Muffled voices) Al-Adel! The Israelis would be furious if they knew—

  SCHNEIDER: Nakada! He’s wanted for that sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Hell, I just met the Emperor of Japan two weeks ago. If I had known this—

  FULBRIGHT: All right, I’m going to close this line of inquiry right now and advise that the Joint Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee be convened to continue this line of investigation. Lieutenant Colonel Newton, if I were you, I’d get on your cell and tell your commanding officer to expect an official invitation from Capitol Hill.

  We’re adjourned for today.

  Drazens’ “Eye for an Eye” Revenge Plan Uncovered

  CHAIRMAN DP/SAC EYES ONLY

  FILE: IIΣXΔΔφΦ

  MEMORANDUM

  Date: XXXXXXXX

  From: Robert Ellis

  To: David Palme
r, Chairman, Senate Appropriations Committee

  Subject: OPERATION NIGHTFALL (This follow-up memo to verify mission results. See primary AAR-09787 for preliminary details/rules of engagement/mission parameters.)

  SOURCE: DIA and DOD intelligence

  (Getting this intel out of the bastards was like pulling teeth with pliers—something I haven’t done since Haiti!)

  Nine days ago a seven-man direct-action infiltration team was HALO-dropped in the vicinity of the Serbian Army installation at Dakovica, in Kosovo, Victor Drazen’s primary area of operations since the beginning of NATO air operations.

  DA team—code name ANVIL—was led by operative 324-XXXX-262.

  DA team targeted Victor Drazen at his secure compound on the banks of the Erenik River, approximately (4) kilometers northwest of the city of Dakovica. Up to twenty (20) Serbian regulars were already based in the compound and in two antiaircraft gun emplacements in the surrounding forest.

  Victor Drazen arrived with entourage at 1115 local time. Entered main building. DA team neutralized antiaircraft emplacements and painted target for attack plane. Compound destroyed at approximately 1119 local time by AGM-64 precision-guided missile launched by F-18 Hornet attack plane, code name HAMMER.

  Immediately thereafter, Captain Bauer’s DA team was subject to jamming that successfully disrupted their communications and prevented their safe exfiltration. Source of this jamming is still being investigated. Because of radio interference, Serbian forces were able to vector in on DA team and inflict six KIAs of DA team Anvil.

  MISSION ASSESSMENT:

  Victor Drazen was eliminated in the explosion, along with two members of his inner circle:

  Mislov Pajalik, Serbian arms dealer

  Vassili Tupelov, ex-head of the KGB in Belgrade.